“An Aspiring Leader”

John Burt, CEO and Co-founder of JumpStart Advisory Group, recognized early on in his career that effecting change across industries, companies, and individuals would be a focus as part of his leadership journey.

The time frame was uncertain due to the September 11 terrorist incident in the United States. Despite this incident, Elton Ndoma-Ogar and John, who were classmates in Duke University's MBA programme, were able to use a strategy to receive 19 job offers.

Their approach was published in an article titled "The 7 Rules of Engagement in the War against MBA Unemployment". In view of the fact that their connections and experiences were excellent, they started the JumpStart Advisory Group in 2004 as an outcome.

John's career has grown from being an individual contributor to playing multiple roles. He has held roles in management, ownership, advisory boards, and other decision-making responsibilities and has made an impact.

Many individuals and organizations have invested in his development. He has used a "pay it forward" mindset in engaging with the next generation of leaders for the last 20 years to position them for career success. In some cases, they have been exposed to various career options that could change their lives. That may have included support in the recruiting process to get the job.

His experiences in management consulting and corporate finance prepared him to go from Co-Founder to CEO of JumpStart. He continued by advising or providing services to several top-tier consumer product companies and financial services. On the basis of diversity, he did the same in healthcare, management consulting, technology companies, and academic institutions too.

As my network of organizations and individuals has evolved over time, more recently, I have been motivated to assist in getting more diversity in the C-Suite and board rooms. John’s interest in problem-solving and execution to address diverse talent in the C-Suite and board rooms aligns with the mission and history of Spencer Stuart, a global leader in executive search and leadership advisory services.

Becoming A Leader

Throughout his 7+ years of corporate finance at Eli Lilly, John had six roles with increasing responsibility, from serving as the finance lead for business units, to being an analyst in Corporate Financial Planning, prior to pursuing an MBA. He was enriched with corporate global scope roles, internal controls, and compliance. He also oversaw 10–15 direct reports after he pursued an MBA.

His career has also included experiences in the management consulting industry, initially as a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and later as a Director of Diversity at the Boston Consulting Group. As a post-MBA consultant, he learnt the craft of problem-solving, conducting the right analysis, enhancing communication (verbal and written) and setting achievable goals. This was something that carried over to being a Director of Diversity at the Boston Consulting Group.

"Over 7 years as a Director of Diversity at the Boston Consulting Group, I had strategy and execution responsibility across a 10-15 office system, including recruitment, assisting in the onboarding process to be successful over the first 60-90 days in a role, ERG engagement, retention, and resource oversight (budget and staff)," he says. Key recruiting highlights included the launch of programmes such as Bridge to BCG, BCG Externships (1 week of work experience), and BCG Scholars. Key engagement programmes include "Wheels Up" as an onboarding initiative prior to a day-one employment start date going into year one, mentorship programming, local office ERG engagement, and an annual diversity retreat with participation by the CEO.

As a co-founder of JumpStart, being comfortable with taking a risk as well as knowing your strengths and weaknesses allowed for a transition to CEO. As CEO, you have ultimate responsibility for the company, period!

As an adjunct professor at three academic institutions, John was able to hone his craft in teaching. He was also good at problem solving and made content practical, relevant, and exciting.

From a community engagement standpoint, John has served on various boards since his first two non-profit roles as Treasurer, prior to pursuing an MBA. Currently, he serves on the boards of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Dean’s Council and The Oaks Academy. Previously, he served on the advisory boards of the Ron Brown Scholars programme in the Washington, DC area and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Lessons Learned Along the Way

We asked John to share his perspective on lessons learned both personally and professionally that may help others achieve their goals.

Some points John has learned along the way include:

• Change is constant, and embracing feedback with a continuous improvement mindset serves leaders well.

• Always be problem-solving, and the rest will take care of itself.

• Time is one of the greatest resources we have; 24/7 is there for everyone temporarily, so be careful to optimise it.

• Find your passion, follow your passion, aspire to be the best, and you will never work a day in your life again.

• Learning is a lifelong journey that occurs in many avenues beyond the classroom.

• Innovation and ideas create an environment for sustainable growth.

• Aligning what success looks like, engaging the right people to drive action, measuring it, and accounting for it are keys to running any initiative.

• Do things for free; do things that make sense, and the money will come.

Building a Brand

Initially, John was in pursuit of potential job titles, but he shifted his focus to the role of being a trusted advisor to companies and individuals. The previously mentioned companies changed his life professionally and personally.

To some degree, as a co-founder and CEO, the brand of the organization and its leaders evolve over time. The JumpStart Advisory Group has been able to remain a viable organization with a company, academic, and individual consumer clientele or customer base. JumpStart has been able to support recruiting and advisory needs at various career phases (while pursuing a degree and as working professionals) by focusing on diversity.

Although they do not publish all of their clients, the corporate client list includes a diverse mix of best-in-class organisations committed to diversity. They are Bank of America, Evercore, First Republic, Vista Equity Partners, Accenture, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, McKinsey, West Monroe, Google, Sephora, Beam Suntory, ConAgra, the San Francisco 49ers, and many others.

Serving Various Clients

To maintain a high client retention rate year over year, we asked John to share a few impactful examples of client engagements as part of JumpStart’s ability to do the same.

A few consumer product goods companies have been partners of JumpStart’s Path to Brand Management Careers for several years. Some highlights include brand awareness and engagement activities with screened JumpStart candidates, followed by 1-1’s, interviews, and a unique experience for a group visit to their headquarters. This partnership offered several jobs to diverse candidates each year.

A leading management consulting company sought to hire diverse on-campus and off-campus working professional talent. JumpStart’s Path to Consulting plan for this client included branding within the diverse community and screening candidates for undergraduate and lateral hire pipelines, resulting in several job offers. JumpStart was also brought in for a special advisory project regarding diversity, recruiting strategy, and execution.

A leading biotech company sought to hire diverse working professional talent for their finance function, so JumpStart’s Path to Finance became an invite-only reception featuring their CFO as a speaker and other staff to engage with screened candidates sourced by JumpStart. The approach led to a pipeline of diverse candidates, hires, and maintaining the partnership between the two companies. JumpStart was also employed to create and implement professional development and leadership programmes for current finance employees.

A leading financial services and investment banking client sought to develop and hire diverse undergraduate student talent from HBCUs across multiple functions, including finance and technology. HBCU students were led by JumpStart's Path to Finance and Path to Tech approaches. They received an internship or full-time job, as well as a scholarship for up to $15,000.

A leading beauty company sought to hire diverse working professional talent for multiple functions. JumpStart’s Path to the Beauty Industry became an invite-only reception featuring their CHRO and Diversity Director as speakers, as well as other staff to engage with screened candidates sourced by JumpStart. The approach led to a pipeline of diverse candidates, hires, and scope expansion for JumpStart. This allowed them to source diverse candidates for their internship program.

Leaving a Legacy

We asked John to share his perspective on accomplishments and things he is proud of. John is passionate about interacting with interesting people and doing interesting things as an individual while overcoming life challenges.

Life is good as a trusted advisor to several top-tier clients and executives on initiatives that are important to them and to individuals who seek my perspective.

Being a co-founder of JumpStart, which started with a kitchen table discussion and a piece of paper, is a bucket list accomplishment. The journey makes John Burt happy, as he has seen the remaining viable at scale over the last 15+ years. This also included global operations across four countries.

As a life journey, he embraced the roles of a leader, manager, owner, investor, and decision maker that would have an impact always.

But smiling or laughing often while living my purpose in life is a way of life.

As a father of two young daughters and a grown son, the most important thing that will define his legacy to his most important clients or customers is frequent adjustments to be what is needed! IE